Symposium 13: Within and beyond the walls: life and nursing in Ravensbruck concentration camp

Symposium lead: Jane Georges, Associate Professor, Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science, University of San Diego, San Diego, CA, United States jgeorges@san.rr.com

Symposium chair: Jane M. Georges, PhD, RN, Associate Professor, University of San Diego, School of Nursing

Symposia focus:

All papers are concerned with the previously unexplored roles of nurses in the Ravensbruck women's camp in Nazi Germany and the implications for contemporary nursing. The first paper by Alison O'Donnell will act a backcloth to explore the Ravensbruck camp and the lives of the nurses and prisoners there. This context will then lead into a description of nursing in Ravensbruck, which Linda Shields will offer. Susan Benedict will then explore the trials of the Ravensbruck medical personnel following World War II. Lastly, Jane Georges will consider the ethical questions raised by nursing involvement at Ravensbruck, with a focus on the implications for contemporary nursing practice.

Source of funding: N/A

Level of funding: N/A

Abstract  one: ‘Within the walls: living in Ravensbrück concentration camp’

Ms Alison O’Donnell Lecturer in Nursing University of Dundee, Dundee, UK

“A high thick wall surrounds the camp. On it is stretched barbed wire. We later learn that this wire was electrically charged, day and night, in order to make escape impossible. In the distance, above the wall, one could see treetops.” Antoina Brucha, cited in Morrison (2000). In May 1939, Ravensbrück Concentration Camp near Fürstenberg, Germany received its first transport of women prisoners. The citation above is taken from Antoina Brucha who arrived in the camp in autumn 1939. During the National Socialist era in Germany, the position of women was deliberately targeted; women’s organisations were co-ordinated into a single State agency, NS Frauenschaft or the NSF from September 1939. Women were then excluded from certain professions like academic appointments and from all political positions (Stephenson 2003). Some women who did not confirm to the ethos of the National Socialist era were marginalized and in some cases imprisoned at locations such as Ravensbruck, where they became the subjects of unethical-and unthinkable- experiments. Others were used as slave labourers. That nurses had roles in these camps is a previously under-explored area of nursing history. This historical research seeks to provide an initial description and analysis of this chapter in the newly emergent area of study of nursing during the Nazi regime. This initial presentation describes the socio-political context in which Ravensbruck was created and maintained, and the everyday life of the women who were imprisoned within its walls. This context will provide a backcloth for the following three papers that will address the specific roles of nurses in the camp, the eventual trials of several nurses, and implications for contemporary nursing.

References

  • Brucha, A., 2000. Ich war keine Heldin. In Morrison, J., ed. Ravensbrück : everyday life in a women’s concentration camp 1939-45. Princeton : Markus Weiner Publishers, p. 32. Stephenson, J., 2003. Women in Nazi Germany. Basingstoke : Palgrave.

Abstract two: ‘Nursing in Ravensbruck'

Professor Linda Shields Faculty of Health and Social Care University of Hull Cottingham Rd Hull HU67RX UK

In Ravensbruck, there were both prisoner-nurses as well as nurses employed by the SS. In both circumstances, nurses became swept up into the crimes against humanity that characterized the camps. This paper will describe the roles and actions of three of these nurses, two of whom were prisoners, and the effects of their actions and inactions on the inmate population. Many of these actions, or selective inactions, resulted in extreme suffering and even death of prisoners.

References

  • File WO 309/692/81961, Public Record Office, London. Morris, J.G.,2000. Ravensbruck. Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers.

Abstract three: ‘Answering for Their crimes: The trials of Ravensbruck medical and nursing personnel’

Professor Susan Benedict Professor of Nursing Medical University of South Carolina College of Nursing 99 Jonathan Lucas Street Charleston, SC 29425 USA

In addition to the well-known Nuremberg trials, other trials for war criminals were ongoing. One such set of trials was held before a British Tribunal and involved nurses and physicians from Ravensbruck concentration camp. This paper will describe the accusations and defences of these nurses as well as the eventual verdicts and punishments. Included will be the nurse-defendants’ explanations for their actions.

References

  • File WO 309/692/81961, Public Record Office, London. Stiftung Brandenburgische Gedenksteten, Mahn- und Gedenkstette Ravensbruck Rile: vol 19, area 165. Tillion, G., 1975. Ravensbruck. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books.

Abstract four: ‘Beyond the walls: implications of nurses' actions at Ravensbruck’

Professor Jane Georges [Chair] University of San Diego School of Nursing 5998 Alcala Park San Diego, CA 92110 USA

Using the perspectives of Agamben (1999; 2005), the concepts of “bio-power” and “state of exception” will be the focus of an ethical analysis of nurses’ involvement at Ravensbruck. An exploration of the bio-political spaces in which nursing existed in the Third Reich and continues to exist in contemporary Western culture will be undertaken. The role of gender, ethnicity and class in creating bio-political spaces in which nurses both uphold and violate the fundamental ethical principle of “do no harm” will be described using a critical-feminist analysis. In a self-critical fashion, implications for contemporary nursing will be explored, including the possibility that such atrocities are not some artifact of a past history of nursing that were unique to a certain time and place, but are a very real element of the contemporary bio-political world.

References

  • Agamben, G., 1999. Remnants of Auschwitz: The Witness and the Archive. (D. Heller-Roazen, trans.) New York: Zone Books. Agamben, G., 2005. State of Exception. (K. Attell, trans.) Chicago: University of Chicago Press.